Interview / tutorial by Editor Michel Romaggi in collaboration with the author Evgeniy Popov 
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 14th of March 2022

 'White and Red'

Evgeniy's images and especially his compositions of objects are well thought out, colourful and so beautiful. The one I have chosen out of his series called "White and red" is so excellent.  Is it simple aesthetic research or allegorical evocation? Evgeniy talks about some secrets of his creation.

Can you tell us something more about your different 'series'? How do you get inspired?How do you come up with the ideas? Is it just a matter of aesthetically arranging objects, or does the subject comes to illustrate an idea?

My works very often, don't start while carrying of having a special meaning to me. Most of the time, it is enough to arrange carefully selected objects in an aesthetic way.  But for this particular photograph it didn't happen like this.  This work entitled 'White and Red' actually was the beginning of a whole series of images that I shot quite a long time ago back in 2018.

So, how was it born?

I remember very well that specific spring day in 2018 when I suddenly remembered that it was just 100 years ago that the Civil War in Russia began. It was a terrible fratricidal war that completely destroyed the way of life for millions of my compatriots. I wanted to try to convey my attitude to these long-past events by means of subject photography. I used white objects to symbolize the monarchical Russian Empire, whose supporters called themselves "whites". The red berries are symbolizing the communists who called themselves "reds" and they were the people coming out of the Russian Empire and destroyed the country to the ground. Why sweet berries? "Red" ideas were initially very attractive to the people. Seemingly sweet were the words: “freedom”, “equality”, “brotherhood”, as well as slogans such as: “Power to the people”, “Land to the peasants”, “Down with autocracy”. At that time, no one suspected that behind these beautiful words la cruel dictatorship was hidden to set my country back in development for decades. This is the idea I had on that morning in March 2018.

How did you do it? How did you set up this scenery? What gear, what settings, did you use?

Once I had it in mind, everything happened swiftly. I arranged the composition, hung a black fabric background, placed two soft-boxes on the right and left, and took the picture. I liked the result immediaty after the first take.  That happens rarely even though I had done product photography for more than seven years previously.
The camera I use all the time is a Canon 6D. The lens is Canon EF 35mm 1:2 IS USM. Shutter speed 1/125 of a second, aperture 11. I shoot almost all my still life images with these settings. Also, two Canon 430EX II flash units were used to create this work. That's all the equipment, that's how simple it is!

Here are some more images from my others series...

From the series 'Magic  Light'

 From the series 'Spring sketches'

From the series 'Experiments with glass'

To end this short interview, dear Evgeniy, can you tell us a little about yourself and the place photography takes in your life?

I live and work in Stalingrad (Volgograd), a large and beautiful city on the banks of the great Russian river Volga. I got my first camera as a present, a long time ago when I was 10 years old. I have been photographing ever since. I love photographing old and modern architecture. Street portraits are also very attractive to me.  Photography is my hobby, a hobby that gives life additional colours. I greatly enjoy the process of shooting as well as the process of coming up with new compositions. Even searching for all kinds of props in stores is a huge pleasure to me.
I would love to start exploring new genres.  For example, I have been interested in nude art for a long time. But in the future, this might evolve into a completely different story…

Thank you very much for these interesting explanations about your creations, Evgeniy.